Lord of Illusions
by Codename-ShadowFox
Summary: One death sets in motion a night of comfort and passion which leads to anger and betrayal that festers into vengeance. The product of that night is now the center point for the future, the boy born into greatness and tragedy. The gift given by his father, the power to make his most vivid dreams and darkest nightmares a reality. The story of the boy who became the Lord of Illusions.


**AN - **Sorry for putting out another story but this came to me in a dream last night and I just had to write it down and flesh it out a bit more. I plan to change a whole lot of things, what you may ask? Well I'm not telling, but needless to say it's going to be an AU.

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Naruto.

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"Normal speech"

'Quotes or emphasis'

**Jutsu, Kyuubi, or scene change**

_Thoughts_

* * *

**Lord of Illusions - Prologue**

"Ok, you next." A chuunin said as he pointed towards a blonde spiky-haired boy.

The kid in the jumpsuit stood up and thumped his fist against his chest, "My name is Minato Namikaze, and my dream is to become Hokage!" He said with a grin.

**XXX**

"-And this year's rookie of the year is... Minato Namikaze!"

Said boy stood up and grinned widely before walking down to receive his headband. As he walked back up towards his desk his eyes caught sight of a certain girl and his cheeks grew slightly red when she congratulated him.

**XXX**

Minato was walking towards the training grounds to work on theory he had for a new jutsu when he heard a faint voice behind him.

"Minato-kun!"

"Hmm?" Said boy turned around to see a panting Mikoto stop in front of him, "Mikoto-chan? What's wrong?"

"Its... *huff* K-Kushina-chan... we *pant* w-we were training when all of a sudden some Kumo-nin kidnapped her!" Mikoto said through labored breaths while holding her bleeding side.

Minato's eyes grew wide and while he wanted to stay and make sure Mikoto was ok he knew that time was of the essence and without saying anything he rushed off to where she told him they were heading. Meanwhile Mikoto was running back towards the village to alert the Hokage.

**XXX**

"Kushina... are you alright?" Minato asked as he set the red-headed girl down after having saved her from the Kumo-nin.

In spite of herself Kushina couldn't help but blush when she looked at Minato in a new light now, she used to think he was really girly but now... now she was starting to see him differently.

**XXX**

"Minato-kun, the wedding has been moved up to the end of the month. I hope you can make it but... with the war and everything, I don't have high hopes for a big turn-out." Mikoto said with a slight laugh.

"Ah I see... I suppose I should find someone to bring as a date then huh? Only five days... you're not giving me a whole lot of time Mikoto-chan." Minato replied with a laugh of his own.

"Well... you do know that a certain red-head has had her eye on you for a while now right?" Mikoto hinted with a wink.

"A red-head huh... to be honest I thought I did something to piss her off in the last few years since she always turned red and yelled at me when I talked to her." Minato sighed, "Maybe if she was more like you Mikoto-chan... Fugaku is one lucky bastard. Anyway I guess i'll go ask Kushina if she says yes then that's fine but the moment her hair starts defying gravity I'm going to Hirashin myself into next week."

Mikoto giggled at her friend's silliness and nodded, "Well then I'll see you next week one way or another, bye Minato-kun!"

Minato nodded with a smile and waved as she walked away, "I'll see you next week Mikoto-chan."

**XXX**

Minato, Fugaku and Kushina were waiting outside of the delivery room as Mikoto was already into her tenth hour of labor, another grueling hour later a medic-nin walked out and smiled telling Mikoto's husband and closest friends that they could come in now.

Mikoto was holding her new-born son and after a rare smile from Fugaku she kissed her baby on his forehead and whispered 'Itachi.'

Minato was truly happy for Mikoto, one of his closest friends but... a part of his couldn't help but feel jealous when he looked at the new parents, especially when he turned to Fugaku for a moment.

Kushina caught this look of jealousy and smiled internally as she reached out and gripped Minato's hand in hers. Dreams of her future with the blonde, flooding her mind. If her Minato-kun was jealous of Fugaku for being a father, then she would just have to help him with that small problem.

**XXX**

Mikoto was sobbing in her room while Minato was there comforting her. Itachi was long since asleep and Minato could only now find the time to talk to her about it since he had to stay late tonight at the tower.

"H-He d-didn't even show any s-sympoms... h-how? It usually takes y-years to kill someone after they start sh-showing." Mikoto said through her gasps of air as she cried.

Minato was there comforting his long time friend. They had receive the autopsy report of Fugaku Uchiha that day and found out that he had died of a blood-line disease that was recessive in his family.

"It's a pity... Fugaku always said he wanted to die out on the battlefield like a true Uchiha... to be taken by a disease... that's just not right." Even though Minato and Fugaku never really saw eye to eye he still respected the man as a shinobi and fought alongside him during the early days of the war.

Minato pulled Mikoto into a hug and rubbed her back, "Even thought Fugaku is gone... you still have us. You still have your friends, your family, your son, and... you still have me. I'll always be here for you Mikoto-chan." Minato said making Mikoto look up at him, having heard an affectionate tone that she never has before from the blonde.

The Hokage stared deep into the black gems that were the trademark of the Uchiha, a look of regret and longing on his face. "I never told anyone... I always kept it hidden after you met him... your happiness meant more to me than my own so I resolved not to get in between you two but... I'll always be there for you Mikoto... because I love you." He said before leaning in and planting a soft kiss on her lips.

Mikoto was surprised as first but slowly returned the kiss, eventually deepening it. The Uchiha had a crush on the blonde all throughout the academy and into her teenage years but after years of Minato never making a move and she too scared to, she eventually gave up and turned elsewhere.

Now however, all of those feeling she once harbored for him returned full-blast, her mind attempting to take any happiness to shine out her sorrow. Minato ended up staying the night after he created a clone to put of a silencing seal around the room.

The morning after Mikoto felt both happiness and shame. Happy that she finally learned that her longtime crush returned her feeling while shame because Minato is still dating her best-friend who was due to return from her mission in a week or two.

**XXX**

Minato was in his office, still thinking about what happened two weeks ago. They haven't spoken since for one reason or another, and he was still thinking of how to let Kushina down easily when she returns any day now.

Minato heard a knock on his office door and called for the visitor to enter. He was surprised to see that it was Mikoto who walked in looking down, refusing to look him in the eye, making him frown slightly.

"Mikoto-chan... did... did you need something." Mikoto said with an odd nervousness that he has rarely ever felt before.

Mikoto was contemplating on how to go about this, how to tell him without causing a scene. She eventually decided to be straight forward with it. "Minato-kun..." She started as she slowly lifted her head to look him directly in his deep blue eyes, "I'm pregnant..."

**XXX**

Minato was anxiously waiting for Kushina to return from her trip down to the shopping district. After dating for a year they had decided to move in together after Kushina's insistence, Minato was hard pressed to refuse.

Kushina had returned from her A-Rank mission two days ago and rather than breaking-up with her on the spot, Minato figured he would let her get some rest before breaking the news to her.

The sound of a door opening interrupted his thoughts and he swiveled around in the bar chair to see Kushina walked in with a smile, holding a few groceries as well as another bag with some hair products that he eventually found out were laced with chakra and the reason Kushina could make her hair float at will.

"Heya Minato-kun! We're you waiting for me?" Kushina asked as she set the bags down on the counter.

"Yeah... I need to talk to you about something." Minato said in a quieter than normal voice that still held a seriousness to it.

Kushina raised her eyebrow at how weird the young Hokage was acting but shrugged and said, "Sure, what's on your mind Minato?"

Minato remembered how Mikoto dropped her bomb on him and decided to take a page out her book and not beat around the bush, "Kushina... I think we should break-up. It's not working out, when Mikoto suggested I ask you to her wedding I figured I would give you a try to see if it led anywhere... this whole time I've been fooling myself. If I kept dating you just because I was settling. that would be unfair and cruel to you. So... I think we should end it here..."

Minato walked out of the large apartment they lived together in, he could still hear the Uzumaki's cries before sounds of destruction came from inside of the building. He felt like an asshole but he couldn't keep himself in a fake relationship, keeping not only himself but also Kushina from a chance at real love.

**XXX**

Mikoto hid her growing belly for as long as possible, the first few months were easy after that she had taken to wearing really loose clothing, but now there was no hiding it. She was thankful that Minato sent Kushina out on a long-term S-rank mission to Kiri to keep tabs on the civil war. She was due to return a month after delivering.

Over the last six months Minato and Mikoto had continued to see each other in secret, he proposed after Mikoto told him she was pregnant and only after a month of secret dating did she accept and they had the Sandaime marry them in secret with only Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Itachi as the witnesses.

Itachi seemed to take to Minato quite easily and Minato grew fond of the young Uchiha and treated him like a son. While Fugaku's death still hit her hard at the beginning she started to smile again soon after she accepted Minato's proposal.

Now she was nearing her second birth and couldn't wait to give Minato the child he always wanted.

**XXX**

Kushina was sweating profusely, dried blood being made liquid again by her sweat. She had been sprinting towards Konoha for the past five hours and were it not for the Kyuubi she was sure she would have passed out from exhaustion after the first.

Kushina needed to make it home however, Minato needed to know what was happening in Kiri. She and the ANBU team she was leading were watching the city when Kiri ninja started round people up, particularly blood-line users and gathering them at the center of the city.

She never would have expected for the Yondaime Mizukage to order his ninja to start slaughtering the blood-line users, as soon as this started happening she ordered her team to retreat only to later be intercepted by patrolling ANBU squads that were on the look-out for runaway bloodliners.

Her team fought valiantly and managed to take out a few of the enemy ninja, she herself had managed to kill one of the seven swordsmen who used a long needle-type sword. After finish off the rest of the enemy ANBU she fled the island on their boat she had hidden only a genjutsu/seal combo to make it invisible, and immediately set sail for the land of fire.

Here she was now two days later, nearing the gates to her village, her gear was in disrepair, her clothing was blood soaked, her mask was fractured and cracked in placed, but she didn't care. Minato had to know of this as soon as possible.

**XXX**

Kushina could not believe was she was looking at. Earlier when Minato's secretary told her that he was in the hospital she feared the worst and rushed over there, concern showing for the man she still held feelings for. When Kushina got there she threatened the woman at the front and demanded to know where Minato was, to Kushina's immediate surprise she was told he was in the delivery ward.

After learning which room she ran towards the stairs and tracked down the room number, opening the door only to freeze at what she saw, the occupants were just as shocked as she was.

Minato was mentally cursing, wondering why Kushina was a month early from her mission to Kiri, while Mikoto was trying to think of something to say only for nothing to come out of her mouth.

Kushina glanced at the baby being held in Mikoto's arms. Her first thought was disappointment and hurt at not being told by Mikoto that she was having another child but that was soon replaced by another emotion as soon as she took a good look at the baby.

Black hair, tan skin as opposed to the Uchiha pale, angular features... then the baby opened its eyes and the bright blue hidden underneath his eyelids were shown to the world. It didn't take longer for Kushina to piece everything together, mouth agape as she looked in between the three. _It all makes sense now._

Kushina thought back to when Minato broke up with her. _Nine months ago. _She thought back further to when Itachi was born. _That bastard wasn't jealous of Fugaku being a father... he was just jealous of Fugaku for being with Mikoto. _Years before that. _He used to blush when he talked to Mikoto..._

Kushina then noticed a slight gleam of light and turned to it, rage filled her mind as she looked at her former best-friend's hand. A ring. A ring that should have been hers. A ring she no longer wants. A ring that symbolizes betrayal.

It all happened in less that two seconds before Kushina stormed out of the room. Kushina heard Mikoto call for her but she ignored it. The red-head used shunshin to appear outside of Konoha's walls and walked into a nearby clearing before sitting down and closing her eyes.

**XXX**

_Demon... wake up, I know you can hear me._

Kyuubi growled. _**What do you want bitch?**_

_Shut up! I'm not in the mood for your crap you stupid fox! Now... I've got a proposition for you._

_**Take your proposition and shove it up your ass!**_

Kushina grew some tick marks on her forehead and replied _Do you want your freedom or not?_

_**...I'm listening.**_

_I'll free you, on one condition._

_**Was is it?**_

Kushina smirked thinking about getting the perfect revenge against that asshole of a Hokage, his Uchiha whore and their bastard child. _Burn Konoha. Burn it to the ground. Destroy the village that sealed you into me. Promise me this and I'll break the seal right now._

_**...Release me... **_The Kyuubi answered after thinking it over for a minute.

Kushina grinned and removed all the stakes that held down the Kyuubi before expelling a dense orb of red chakra from her stomach that was quickly growing in size. Kushina ran as fast as she could from the site, knowing that Kyuubi will kill her as well if given the chance.

High above a cliff side Kushina stood as she watched the nine-tailed demon destroy her former village. A maniac smile on her face, while her slashed headband rested on her forehead. She only stuck around to enjoy the show for a few minutes before fleeing the land of fire.

**XXX**

Minato fell to the ground with a grim smile on his face, he held his son close to him as the light started fading from his eyes. He could hear the wails from the Namikaze-Uchiha and could only hope that his boy would forgive him for the burden he placed on him.

Minato had almost no time to plan before devising a seal to hold the Kyuubi. He joined the Shiki Fujin to seal the Yang half of Kyuubi's chakra into the shinigami while using the Hakke Fuin to seal the Yin half into Menma.

Minato figured he couldn't seal the full strength of the Kyuubi into his son since he wasn't a Uzumaki, so he sealed only the Yin half into his boy so that he could one day use his sharingan enhanced genjutsu to pacify the great demon.

As he laid dying, his last breaths escaping him he could only think of Mikoto and his two boys. The grim smile growing slightly before darkness, and the Shinigami overtook him.

The Yondaime Hokage is dead.

**XXX**

Mikoto cradled her newborn close to her as she cried over loosing another man that she loved. Then she looked down at the baby, that was brought to her by the Sandaime himself. She couldn't help but notice that Menma was a carbon-copy of Minato except for having her hair color. She smiled fondly and kissed his forehead before laying back into the hospital bed, falling into a fitful sleep.

**XXX**

It was dark out now as Menma walked hom alone. He had stayed at the academy and waited there until everyone left, and waited some more until it started growing dark. His mother and brother said they would pick him up from his first day at the academy today.

He had met a lot of other kids, some from clans, some civilian-born. The ones who stood out to him were the Hyuuga heiress whom he had never met before, but knew of. He also met the Nara, Akimichi, Aburame, Inuzuka, Kurama and Yamanaka heirs. He had to admit that Hinata and Ino were both really pretty along with another girl named Yakumo who was the heiress of the almost extinct Kurama clan.

After class a few of the girls wanted him to hang out with them but he told them that he was staying there to wait for his mother and brother. After three hours of waiting he decided to go home. "Wasted all of this time waiting when I could have trained..." Menma grumbled as he walked up to the Uchiha clan gate.

He immediately noticed that something was off and activated his sharingan out of instinct, one tomoe in each eye lazily circled his pupil. Menma noticed that there was no one standing guard, and there was an almost unnatural silence when normally he would hear the bustling of Uchiha walking inside of the compound. Even if it is getting late, it's not **that** late.

Menma opened the gate and instantly regretted the decision. Blood. There was blood everywhere. Bodies laid haphazardly along the streets.

Fear gripped his heart as he ran past the dead bodies of his clan, his friends, coming to the largest house in the middle. Menma kicked the door down recklessly and ran inside only to freeze as his worst nightmare has just been proven true.

His mother laid there dead, a wound in her chest was bleeding profusely, pooling around her. He heard movement in the backyard and in his fury to find his dear mother's killer he came upon his older brother, bleeding from not only his side but also from his eyes where if his memory served correctly the Mangekyo was proudly blazing.

The enemy in a black cloak with red clouds turned their head towards Menma and a sadistic smirk could be seen under the hood that only allowed the bottom half of their face to be shown while the rest is surrounded in shadow.

"Menma! You have to get away... please... run!" Itachi pleaded towards his little brother.

"I-Itachi-niisan... wh-what's going on?" Menma asked, while he subconsciously took a step back as he couldn't see but could **feel** the predetory gaze on the cloaked figure.

"Well, well, well... if it isn't the bastard child. You're lucky I was ordered to capture you and not kill... a pity. Itachi, hand over the boy and you may live." The oddly feminine voice came from the cloaked figure.

"Never." Itachi growled out. He normally never showed any emotion but when it came to his little brother, nothing would stop Itachi from keeping him safe. "I'll watch you burn before you take my otouto! **Amaterasu!**"

The cloaked figure's eyes widened under the shadow veil and she quickly replaced herself with a nearby bucket, only to watch the poor thing be hit by solid black flames and turn into ash in less than a second. "Well fuck... I'm glad that didn't hit me. It looks like playtime is over," She started, as she drew the sword from her back. "Prepare to di-"

"Uzumaki." A new voice came from behind her, as a masked man materialized. "Forget them for now, the whole of Konoha is aware of the situation now. We must escape."

"But- But we're already here! The little bastard is right there! We can take him and run!" She pleaded.

"Enough. Let's go, we have plenty of time to capture him later." The masked man said before turning in on himself and disappearing.

The Uzumaki tisked in annoyance and dropped her hood revealing a pissed off red-head. "Mark my words Uchiha. You," she pointed her sword at Itachi, "Will die by my blade, and you," She turned to Menma, "Will experience three days of nothing but torture as we rip the demon right out of you." Kushina declared with an insane laugh before exploding in a shower of blood, leaving no trace behind.

"Menma... we need to meet with Hokage-sama... now." Itachi said through gritted teeth as he held his bleeding side. Menma said nothing, couldn't really, his mind had gone blank but he had enough presence of mind to nod and follow Itachi and they sped towards the tower.

The two brothers watched as ANBU flooded the compound. Itachi figured they were there to take the bodies to the morgue but his still activated sharingan caught something. The masks had the words 'NE' scratched on to them. Itachi paid it no further mind, opting instead to report to the Hokage and hopefully make sense of this mess.

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**AN -** Bet you didn't see that coming. Anyway please review and tell me if you like the idea of the story or now. Personally I think it has a lot promise since 'Sasuke' no longer exists as Menma has taken his place while Itachi doesn't slaughter the clan and instead Tobi and Kushina. Hehehe both Akatsuki and Orochimaru after one kid... oh I'm evil.

**_~Shadowfox_ **


End file.
